Chapter 8

The new Imperial Japanese Army was working hard to train a new battalion of soldiers, which was a difficult task given that no outdoor maneuver areas were available on Kuniumi that wouldn’t require the soldiers to wear breathing apparatus. Helmets could be fashioned to include them for operations on Kuniumi, but their deployment on Rek wouldn’t require them.

“Yakazuki-san, what are your thoughts about conducting the training for our soldiers on Rek, where the environment would perhaps be similar to where their operations would be conducted? We would not be training with the wrong equipment, and it would give the soldiers a chance to get used to the planet,” General Masamune asked.

“It is theoretically possible,” Hiro answered. “The fleet would have to provide logistical support for the operation and we don’t yet have ships for that. What sort of combat support would such a deployment require?”

“I don’t think we would require any, as I wouldn’t want to put a training base anywhere near the existing settlements. The purpose would be to get the soldiers used to operating in as similar an environment to where they would be operating as can be found, not for them to have any contact with the colonists. If it were on a different continent, or in a different hemisphere that would be ideal. If we needed combat support, that would mean we would have picked the wrong place.”

“Perhaps this is a good idea,” Hiro mused. “We are already maintaining a presence near the planet, and if we can provide the logistical support that such a training base would require as well, I can see this would help improve the training for the soldiers that will soon be given a very challenging task. We would need to provide logistical support for that effort eventually, so all this does is force me to once again change the ship production schedule. It seems I must do so every few days as our needs change, and they always seem to.”

“Yes, Admiral, they do indeed. You are not the only one who struggles with such decisions,” commiserated the General.

“Let General Yushida know that I agree with your idea, but that we cannot begin such an effort until we have completed a logistics ship. I will advise you on the production schedule as soon as it is adjusted, and we can have our staffs coordinate on the planning for this.”

“Thank you, Admiral. I appreciate how you are willing to entertain ideas that may further complicate your already difficult work.”

“It is a familiar need. Mitsubishi often required the same from me when I was on Earth. I may have a different title now, but in many ways the work is the same.”

Tomozo Onishi was unable to find a logistical support ship in the ship design databases that met the Imperial Japanese Navy’s requirements. Such a ship would need to fulfill multiple roles, from providing dry cargo such as food stores, to ammunition replenishment, and include some refueling capacity. Typically simple freighters would perform many of these roles, and there was an existing design for a fuel replenishment ship, but the small Imperial Japanese Navy would be better served by a ship that could perform multiple roles rather than having to build multiple different ships dedicated to each one. If the fleet grew to the point that it might need more logistical capacity, spreading out the resources among multiple platforms would add resiliency to the fleet.

With that decided, Onishi’s design engineers turned their attention to the subject. The urgent nature of the request unfortunately precluded the idea of coming up with a specialized new platform, so his team worked to see if standard cargo pods could be redesigned that would allow a modular approach to outfitting an existing freighter design with the flexibility the fleet would need. A Trader class vessel could carry these pods and be produced the most quickly out of the available designs, and it included space for lighters that were originally intended to move pods back and forth from a planet’s surface, so they could accommodate an assault shuttle. With the ability to include dry storage, bulk storage, new gas carrying pods and new liquid carrying pods, it seemed the most efficient way to solve the problem.

Hiro once again interrupted his ship construction queue to order the insertion of a Trader as the next ship to start production. Having to re-juggle production plans so frequently was annoying, but unfortunately quite necessary. No one had known the challenges they would face, and how those challenges might shift as the colony started operation.

That wouldn’t be the last of Hiro’s planning woes, however.

“Tenno hika, how may I serve the Empire?” Hiro responded to the unexpected call from the Emperor.

“Something troubles me, and I was hoping you may set my mind at ease, Yakazuki-san, Akihito Shinno started. “I see we still do not have any new colony transports in production and I am troubled about how we may be able to save more of our people with only one ship bringing more colonists to Kuniumi. When will we have additional transport capacity?”

Hiro really didn’t want to have this conversation. How many times, he thought, must he re-order the ship production schedule to meet critical needs?

“That troubles me as well, tenno hika. We have a critical need of additional warships and logistical support vessels, but we do intend to produce another Kilo class colony transport as soon as possible. It was my understanding that establishing security both here and around Rek was a higher priority than a new colony transport. Has that changed?”

“So you believe the security threat is so great as to require this?” the Emperor asked.

“We do not have perfect understanding of the threat, and that is deeply troubling. Although we watch the Serpent Salient quite closely now, we cannot assume that is the only threat we face. There is always a risk that the enemy could surprise us from another direction, and if they do, we are not ready to face it. Our security now relies too much on the belief that the Sa’arm may not know of Kuniumi. If that is not true, we are in great danger.”

What must we do to minimize the risk, Yakazuki-san?

Hiro composed his thoughts for a moment. “For now, we must establish a security force that can quickly eliminate any enemy scout ships that arrive before they might report our presence. We have only six ships now that can perform that role, which would be sufficient for one planet, but that really isn’t adequate for both Kuniumi and Ruk. I would very much like to have at least two frigates to assist in this. That still leaves us with inadequate strike capabilities in the Serpent Salient, as we cannot strike there while still maintaining effective local security.

“Is it possible to increase our production capacity?”

“Emperor, I would very much like to do that but we are constrained by the availability of raw materials as much as we are by the number of replicators for ship production. Even if we doubled the number of replication docks, we wouldn’t be able to produce ships more quickly. In fact, we were forced to build another gas collector instead of a warship because we have a difficult shortage of gases that we must address, not only for naval operations but because of the increasing demand for power on Kuniumi.”

“Our trading has not resolved your resource problems, Yakazuki-san?”

While Earth had provided a burst of new raw materials supplies to the Empire after the agreement was finalized, their dedication to providing a consistent supply seemed to be flagging. It hardly surprised Hiro that CENTCOM would so quickly demonstrate the Japanese proverb “starting is easy, continuing is hard.“ Trading partners had helped fill in the gap, but inventories of chromium and molybdenum were utterly inadequate for any additional production.

“It has helped, but we need much more than we are now receiving, as well as additional storage space to accommodate bulk raw materials if our supplies increased. Even solving a problem brings new problems in these difficult times.”

“I shall speak with our Trade Minister to see what can be done to improve the situation. If we can improve our raw materials supply, when would we be able to build another colony transport?”

“I do not know if I can accurately predict when that would happen. It could be several weeks after the resources arrive, or possibly longer. I will make a note in the production schedule that we should look for any opportunity to get one started, however, and I shall ensure that you are kept informed.”

“I would be very grateful, Admiral. We shall work diligently to help resolve some of these issues you are facing.”

“Your Imperial Highness, it would give me great happiness to no longer be troubled by such concerns, but I suspect we shall always be burdened by them to some degree.”

“That may be true, Admiral, but it is my hope we can resolve the most pressing of these issues.”

After the conversation ended, Hiro wondered if the AIs might be able to help with the issue by identifying potential raw materials suppliers and working to facilitate additional trade. He wasn’t going to have the Empire’s future depend on CENTCOM demonstrating anything resembling honor, as they’d demonstrated how little they had in just the short time since they had agreed to provide assistance. Anticipating the discussion they would have with the Emperor Hiro sent an urgent message to the Ministry of Trade to try to secure agreements for alternative sources of molybdenum, chromium and manganese which so far could only be acquired from Earth sources. Until that time perhaps Mitsubishi or Hitachi could fill some of the gaps.

At least the supply of Type 93 was continuing as expected. The warehouses were now filled with thousands of them. Hiro just didn’t have enough ships he could arm with them.

The Chinese embassy started up operation and Naval Intelligence supplied Hiro with a daily stream of reports detailing how many of the embassy’s “diplomatic” officers transported to the Ministry of Defense and other government offices and what their activities were. Of course Hiro was always “too busy” to meet with any of them, he actually was, so Hiro had no first-hand knowledge of their activities. They were making themselves quite a nuisance as they attempted to have casual conversations with whatever staff they could speak with, which was practically no one.

About the only people they could get to talk with them were the covert Naval Intelligence agents. Without anyone else who would give them the time of day, these concubines ended up being their opportunity of last resort, and these operatives provided scathing reports of how the spies requested sexual favors, promised lavish gifts, inexpertly attempted romance, or quite brazenly asked uncomfortable questions that might provide them with intelligence. They all were quite adamant about their feelings about these uncouth and uncomfortable people.

One of the agents was instructed to “play along” with a cover story that the woman was unsatisfied with her position and held a grudge against her superior. She would become a “double agent” to string the Chinese along into thinking their efforts were beginning to yield results. The information she would provide would a careful concoction of misinformation and half-truth that would hopefully cause the Chinese to make serious mistakes in their overall efforts.

So far the risk from them was contained, but no matter how poor their spy effort was, it might somehow stumble onto something important. No matter what the Empire did, as long as this continued it would pose a risk.

If you understand everything, you must be misinformed.

The AIs noted none of the behavior as particularly troublesome, not understanding at all what the purpose was of the efforts of these obvious spies. It simply looked at the behavior with no associated context. Yes, they were asking many questions. Humans were known for exhibiting that behavior. Yes, they were planning how they might obtain information from various Empire personnel. That was not terribly unusual, as an embassy would be expected to learn about the place where they were posted.

If the AIs were going to be of any assistance, they would have to create a situation where the spies would be caught red-handed harming the authority of the planetary government, or the efforts of the Confederacy in their fight against the Sa’arm. That was going to require much careful thought and even more careful planning to execute.

A few days later the embassy finally realized what a massive vulnerability it was to have their supposed “sovereign territory” under observation by the AIs and then have that information shared with the Empire. Following an outburst from the ambassador, the Chief of Mission had a conversation with the AI and informed it of what the usual human conventions were for diplomatic missions. The AI considered the information and agreed with the Chief that it would harm the interests of the Confederacy for it to compromise the privileged status of an embassy with the host nation, and at that moment promptly refused sharing any additional information about what had been going on within the compound with the Empire.

The loss of information was a huge blow, but at least it confirmed a suspicion that the Chief of Mission was actually the one in charge there, and that the ambassador was simply a political flunky who wanted an important title in order to qualify for higher power within the Chinese Communist Party. That pompous clown certainly didn’t have the temperament for such a job, and Naval Intelligence had been wondering why he was heading the mission when he appeared to be so inadequate to the role.

Naval Intelligence immediately started working on a plan to cultivate a relationship with the ambassador. They would need someone exceptional for the job.

The Trader class logistical support vessel did not take long to complete and by the time it was done the few modified cargo pods that were needed for the training effort had been built. They would only have to provide food, water purification equipment, and shelter materials to help support a training base on Rek that was to be established at the same latitude as the Rek settlements, but on a different continent. Rek actually had oceans, while Kuniumi only had a very few barren lakes of acidic, putrid water. The Chinese certainly got the better choice of planets to start their extraterrestrial homelands.

The small fleet of two assault ships and the logistical support vessel left Kuniumi and arrived at Rek a week later, being informed by the “bat” in orbit that nothing had changed that might impact their plans. The assault shuttles started their orbital descent to land the first four platoons. That was accomplished without problem. The next wave, being launched from a different orbital insertion point took a different path, of course.

Suddenly a disturbing message from the “bat” was received. The orbital descent of a spacecraft through an atmosphere creates a visible trail through the atmosphere on entry that the naked eye could see. When the two craft were spotted from the ground there was a burst of radio traffic that seemed to report that the atmospheric entry had been observed. While there wasn’t any likely capability among the shattered remains of the Rek colonists to oppose the landing and they likely would not be able to pinpoint where they would be arriving, the AI reported that these communications were made in the clear, without use of any of the codes that had previously been troubling the observers.

Rek believed it was under attack from the Sa’arm.

They hadn’t seen any “friendly” external activity for years and assumed it would never arrive, so the arrival of several unidentified craft was quite reasonably assumed to be hostile. They took whatever contingency measures they could to meet the threat.

The “bat” on station had a particle detector as part of its sensor package. That particle detector identified a new small source of gamma rays not seen before which was located near one of the concentrations of activity that appeared to be associated with a Mandarin-speaking enclave that consistently promoted a Communist ideology.

The AI interpreted the data as meaning that a mass of uranium had appeared, but the “bat” was unable to determine the source or the intended purpose. Since plutonium has a different radiation signature exclusively of alpha particles that would have been absorbed by an atmosphere before being detected, the source couldn’t be plutonium. Uranium also emits alpha particles, but those would have been absorbed by the planets atmosphere as well, but the gamma rays would have escaped. Thus, any appearance of gamma rays is highly likely to be associated with uranium isotopes.

The crew of the “bat” didn’t need much imagination to propose a likely explanation, nor did the AI onboard, and the “bat” immediately commenced an electronic warfare attack on the site covering the radio frequencies they had previously observed to be in use in that area. The attack could be maintained for another 23 minutes until the ship passed over the horizon of the target, after which time there was nothing the “bat could do to interrupt what that facility intended to do.

The commander of the army detachment gave the order to abort the insertion mission and have the platoons already on the ground dig in as quickly as possible and prepare for a possible nuclear attack. The commander would evaluate what to do about the stranded soldiers after trying to gain more information about the situation, hoping that the colonists on Rek either were unaware of the first group’s presence or that they couldn’t locate the Japanese position with sufficient precision for an attack. Dropping more personnel there was a terrible option, and sending down assault shuttles to retrieve the men on the ground without knowing what was going on was unwise. With a “bat” coming back on station 46 minutes after LOS which could then intercept further radio communications, hopefully the fleet would learn what was going on down there and a better course of action could be identified.